A blog about running
that has metamorphosed
into one about life in general.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Thursday’s Urban Walkabout

Well it seems like it’s back to
walking for me. My ankles haven’t really recovered from the 9 mile run three
weeks ago and I didn’t even start doing a walking workout on the treadmill
until early last week. I happened to have awakened earlier than usual on
Thursday morning after being off from work the previous night, and thought I’d
walk outdoors maybe for 2 to 2 ½ hours, which would have made me catch up to
the training mileage for the Long Beach Half Marathon.

So I headed out towards the
Virginia Country Club area and planned to crisscross the streets and maybe
throw in some loops. I was only aiming or at least hoping for a pace of 15 minutes per mile while doing
4 minutes of aggressive walking with 1 minute of slower recovery. After all, I
haven’t done a walking workout in a while and besides it was a hot day. The
first couple of miles were uneventful but, darn it, when I hit three miles my
left ankle started to hurt, and I thought I would have to abort the workout.
Going into the fourth mile which I thought I was on my way home, the ankle
started to stabilize, so I pressed on. That’s when the maybes started: maybe
one more block, maybe 5 miles, maybe 6, maybe 7, okay, let’s try making it 8
and that should do it. When I hit 2 hours, I was slightly past 8 miles so I
went for 8.5 to even it out. But wait, there’s more – I ran up the time to 2:15
and completed 9.13 miles. The first 7 miles were right on the money at my goal
pace of 15 minutes per mile, but the last 2 miles were way faster because at
the end, the average pace dropped down to 14:48 for the whole distance. So I
didn’t make it to 10 miles, but it wasn’t bad at all for not having walked for
weeks.

Even though I was surprised and
excited to have completed that distance, I didn’t write about it right away
because I was afraid of the aftermath. Often my ankles hurt more the day after,
so I had to wait and see how it would turn out this time. Well, it seems like
the tendons recovered much faster than when I subject them to the pounding of
running because the pain is not as much.

After experimenting between a
short, quick heel-to-toe stride and my more normal longer walking stride, I
found out that my pace is faster with the longer stride, so maybe I’ll keep it
that way. It isn’t as pretty as the swiveling hips of racewalkers, but it seems
to work better for me.

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About Me

I started writing this blog to chronicle my devastating running injury in October of 2008. It has since turned into something I didn't expect: stories and anecdotes about everyday life. On 7/26/11, I retitled this blog from noeldlp.blogspot.com to aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com. I remain permanently injured with PTTD on both ankles but I keep on trying to run nonetheless. I'm not sure if it's passion or insanity. You be the judge.